The Kingdom Way: LUKE 5:27-32 with Pastor Tony Albano

Welcome to the MetaCurch podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor at MetaCurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life.

So thankful you guys are here today.

I want to welcome in Holotus.

Man, I am uh excited every time I get to be up here and just kind of shout them out on the other side of this camera.

God is moving over on the west side, west north side of San Antonio.

We have so many people who used to be part of this movement right here.

We're all part of the same movement, but they would physically gather here, and they decided to launch something a little bit over a year ago.

And God has been doing something great in our people and inviting new families into our movement, and it's just a great time.

Like Easter is just a couple weeks away, which is to me, I mean, I'm involved in ministry, so like maybe it's not crazy to you, but like it being so close to me is like, man, this just happened.

And like maybe you don't live in that arena, and like that's fine, but to me it's just crazy how quickly it comes.

So I want to get able to give you guys some announcements.

I'll give you guys Easter times and all that after service.

But we have something that was just mentioned a little earlier.

We have this worship night coming.

And it's important.

I really want to challenge all of us in the room, all of us in Helotus, to come gather that Friday, March 27th at 7 p.m., right here in this room, right here in this venue.

And we're all gonna see, like, hey, some people we haven't seen in a while from Helotus, maybe some new faces.

And if you were here at our last worship night, this room was packed.

And it felt amazing.

God moved in crazy ways.

We had spontaneous baptisms, like it was just a beautiful moment.

And we're gonna do the same thing.

We're going to prep our hearts and get ready for what God's gonna do Easter.

And after Easter, every single Easter, right after the weekend after, is our baptism service.

We have so many people already registered, and you know, Pastor Clayton says this, so I guess I kind of can say it.

We don't kind of do anything early.

You guys are kind of last minute, so it's not me, it's not me, it's him.

I'm just kidding.

But it's actually very encouraging to see how many people are signed up, and it's like we keep putting people in those tubs.

God is moving.

So March 27, 7 p.m., we're gonna gather for prayer and worship.

We decided that it was important that not when not only we meet together, but when we do meet together, we prioritize prayer.

And we've been doing that week after week, setting aside time in service for us to pray.

You just saw communion.

We just came in, we gathered, and we prayed together, we reflected together.

That's important.

And we're gonna do that very thing on worship night.

So no matter what venue you go to, if you're online, you got some time.

Travel, come be here with us.

It's gonna be a great time.

We are gonna kick off a 24-hour fast as we prepare our hearts for Easter as well.

And uh basically, fasting is simply saying, God, we want you more than anything else.

And when that is our posture, God will show up.

God shows up to those who are hungry.

It's gonna be a great time.

We're praying for revival in us, in this movement, in our city, in our nation, and we are just thankful that not just here at Meta, but many local churches all across America are going to see people come to know Jesus this Easter.

So I'm very thankful for that.

So mark your calendars, March 27th, 7 p.m.

And then just so y'all know, we have limited childcare actually happening.

So um, if you have an 18-month-year-old to a 18-month-old, I always say 18-month-year-old, even about my own children, and my wife's like, bro, you sound ridiculous.

18-month-old to five years.

First come, first serve.

If you get someone, if you get your kid in there, it's gonna be great.

If you don't, I'm sorry, it'll still be awesome.

Uh, I helped my kids, last one, and it was a little, you know, but it was cool.

We were worshiping together.

So if you want that and you want to take advantage of that, show up early.

Doors open, 6 45.

Be here early if you want child care.

It's gonna be an awesome, awesome time.

Okay, I did my announcement.

Now we can go to the message.

So, thankfully you guys are here.

I really am thankful.

Um, we're going through our fulfilled series, the Kingdom Way.

And the last couple weeks have been action-packed.

We've seen like the Gospel of Luke, it's been accelerating.

It starts off kind of slow, you know, the major and all that, and but slowly what you see is it starts to ramp up, and Jesus is starting his ministry.

And it's been really cool to slow down and kind of see, like, hey, like the culture, cultural context really does matter and really does speak volumes.

And we're gonna see that play out big today.

So, what we know is that Jesus at this point has shown that he has power and authority over demons.

That's wild, so that's pretty cool.

We've seen him heal a leper by just touching him, and people were freaking out because he's unclean, that he was not part of society.

People thought, like, hey, you can catch this thing, I don't want to be socially unclean, I won't be allowed in the temple, I won't be allowed in social events, people won't invite me to their homes, and what they do is they outcast him.

And Jesus healed this man with a touch.

And last week, if you were here, we saw not only did Jesus heal a paralytic man who was lowered through a ceiling, but he forgave his sins.

He forgave his sins, and then to prove his authority, he told the man to get up and walk.

And that's scandalous.

The temple system is at its height here.

You're supposed to have a sacrifice, you take your sacrifice to the temple.

If you didn't have a sacrifice, you bought a sacrifice, there's some kind of level of like control, it's also an economy, and then this dude shows up, Jesus shows up, and he forgives sins.

Goes around the system.

And we know from last week that it wasn't just like locals in the room.

Because Jesus has been healing people.

The word is spreading.

So not only is this a packed room in Peter's house, but the Pharisees, the religious leaders, the Sadducees, they're traveling from all over the region as far as Jerusalem.

And Jesus does this miraculous miracle and makes this bold claim that would only mean one thing.

He's claiming to be God.

So things are moving quickly.

And people are coming to investigate him.

And today's story is no different because anywhere Jesus went, this story starts off with Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, and just know that there's eyes on him.

People are watching him.

Some people who are for him, some people who are skeptical, some people who see, like, hey, he's doing something right now that is gonna affect us.

It's gonna affect how people perceive us, it's gonna affect the systems that we've put in place.

So some people feel threatened already by him.

And you're sure, I'm sure, that there's some people who see this and they're asking themselves, could this guy really be the one?

They've been waiting 400 years in silence.

We saw that in the beginning of Luke, when the angel appears, and it starts to pave way for this kingdom impacting our world.

And then people who didn't know really what was going on because he was from Sticktown and he's made little things here and there, but as he starts healing in their local cities, at this point in Capernaum, where the story is like he's healed hundreds of people.

So you have to ask yourself, you have to slow down enough to go, like, what's happening around here?

What are people perceiving as Jesus is walking in this morning, the Sea of Galilee?

What's happening?

And in the middle of that movement, in the middle of people asking, is this the one?

Is this where God moves?

Luke slows down the story a little bit.

Verse 27, it says, After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office.

Now, this is important detail that we have to start with.

Maybe you know this already, but tax collectors are the worst in this society.

If I mention being audited or the IRS, no one's like, yo, thank God for these IRS agents.

And like this, this is we're not, it's not even a close comparison.

Not even close.

If you are an IRS agent, people in this room probably think you suck, and I'm sorry.

You're probably a great person.

Your job, the one you picked, the career went down.

Not a good, I'm just kidding.

But in this society, a tax collector was someone who decided to abandon their people, to exploit their people.

They were already occupied.

Israel's already occupied.

They have a foreign government come in and they're oppressing them, and then they decide to impose taxes on these people, sometimes very poor people, and they make it very hard to thrive in these in this season, they make it very hard to thrive with all these imposed taxes.

And what happens is they would set people up in different jurisdictions in different regions, and they would be your local tax guy.

And if you were to raise your hand and decide, I'm gonna step up for this region, you just literally separated yourself from society.

You're an enemy of God's people.

And you're exploiting them.

Sometimes you would hear, like, hey, a five, seven percent tax on whatever, and there was no rules or jurisdiction over these tax collectors.

They could do whatever they wanted.

Even if it was five, seven percent, it could inflate it however they wanted.

10, 15, 20 percent.

So they literally saw these people as evil.

And right in the beginning of the story, we see that Jesus sees one of these people.

The very people that profited off of God's people.

Their system in that day.

They categorize these people as religiously unclean.

They weren't allowed at the temple, they weren't allowed to be in community.

You didn't want to come in contact with someone who was unclean.

We saw that in the story of the leper.

That's why they were ostracized.

So, really, he had no one.

He was an outsider.

The Pharisees even had a category for them.

They would say, tax collectors and sinners.

As if being a tax collector was below being a sinner and would be in the same category as like a prostitute in the day.

The worst of the worst, the muck of the muck.

And Jesus is walking directly towards that booth.

We know Levi is actually Matthew.

So we have the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and they all retell this story.

Funny enough, Matthew retells his own story of where he met Jesus.

So we know that Levi, Matthew, would go on to write the gospel of Matthew.

And Matthew's just sitting there.

Another day at work.

We don't know exactly what's happening at the tax collector booth, but we know he's sitting there.

I don't know.

He doesn't seem like he's searching for anything.

He's not praying, he's not repenting.

He's working, he's established, he's settled in.

Maybe he has a line of people who he is in action right there, extorting, making life a little bit harder for God's people who are already being oppressed.

But here's what we don't know about Matthew.

We have no idea how Matthew felt about himself.

We don't know what made Matthew decide to go over to that side.

We don't know if he loved money.

We don't know if potentially he got so far in his journey, so far gone, ostracized, people hating him, to where he regretted it.

Maybe didn't see a way out.

Maybe didn't see an opportunity for hope in his situation.

We have no idea if he actually found himself at the place where he was like, I guess this is it.

This is my life.

And early on in this story, I just want you to find yourself in the story.

I don't know if you feel like that today, or if you have felt like that today, like at one point in your life.

Ostracized, cast out, maybe so caught up in sin, covering things up, trying to hide things, bury things, caught up in corruption, maybe so far down the path of destruction that you don't see a way back.

But here's what we do know.

Here's what I am quite sure of in this story.

Matthew knows who Jesus is.

And why am I sure about that?

Because everyone in this region knows who Jesus is.

He's healed hundreds of people at this point.

Right in this area in Capernaum.

We know that people are traveling.

There is things happening in motion.

People want to know what the ruckus is.

So potentially we don't really know what he's feeling in this moment.

But I think we can be pretty sure that Matthew knows who Jesus is.

And that's where we find him in the story.

Matthew's sitting at a booth that defined his life.

It was his sense of control.

He had no control of anything else in his life.

Probably didn't have a solid group of people around him that he could rely on.

But he was building wealth.

He had some kind of protection.

Rome somewhat protected him, protected their people.

What we do is we find him in a seat of self-sufficiency.

Everything is relying on Matthew at this point.

And if we're honest and we slow down enough, some of us can recognize that we have something similar in our life.

We have a booth in our life, some form of identity, security, and control that we're holding on to for dear life.

Every booth promises security, identity, and control.

And Matthew had a physical one, but don't miss this.

You and I have some kind of booth in our life.

It's where you feel a sense of control.

And Jesus sees him.

He's walking toward him.

And Luke, he's very careful with his words.

If you just look at the word, how he saw him, it doesn't just mean passing by, he saw him.

No, the language that he uses is a very intentional.

He sucked him out.

He looked directly at him.

So Jesus, as he's approaching from the distance, he's looking directly at Matthew.

He didn't just show up at his booth.

And if Matthew knows who Jesus is, what do you think is going on in Matthew's head?

The guy who's claiming authority over demons, the guy who's healing people, the guy who just forgave someone's sins, going against their little government that they have, the temple system, the Sadducees do their best to protect.

Someone is going around that system, and that very person is claiming to be for God, and I myself, Matthew, am very where I'm at, literally in my booth, opposing his people.

What do you think Matthew is thinking?

Bro, this dude's about to strike me.

What do you think his people that he's already called to him are thinking?

Like they're just walking, some are following, some are just looking, and they see Jesus take a beeline straight at the tax collector.

They must be like, what in the world is about to happen?

In their mind, he was supposed to be this Messiah who would rise up an army, who would overthrow the government, and they finally have their seat of control on earth, and the story flips.

Instead of eyes of fiery fury, Matthew is met with an unconditional love.

And two words.

Follow me.

No conditions, no prerequisites.

Follow me.

And we don't get the exact details of what's happened, but we can look in.

We just got all this context of the possibilities of what's happening.

And I think we can be very confident that it's something along those lines.

Follow me.

Maybe Matthew was looking for a way out.

And he's met by the grace of Jesus.

And maybe that's your story.

Maybe that's how you've come to know the Lord.

Maybe you're here today and you're far from him.

My prayer has been that you would see yourself in this story.

I would see myself in this story.

It's pretty similar, this calling of Matthew.

We just read about it a couple weeks ago when Jesus called Simon Peter.

Simon knew he wasn't worthy.

He told him to get away.

And Jesus said, Follow me.

In a very similar fashion, he gave up everything and he followed him.

But there's a key thing we have to distinguish between Peter and we have to distinguish between Matthew.

Peter had a life skill, he had a business, he had a boat, he had a whole entire life of a community that was around him.

He was a sinner, sure.

Matthew, a sinner, it's obvious.

Corruption, it's very obvious.

But the difference is Peter could have always gone back fishing.

Matthew, when he got up, he turned his back on Rome.

Leaving his booth, there's no going back.

If you turn your back on Rome, you never go back.

And Matthew, in a moment, decides to leave everything Scripture tells us.

Verse 28, so leaving everything behind, he got up to follow him.

That amazes me.

He was not just leaving a chair.

He was not just leaving a job.

He was leaving economic security, political alignment, predictable income.

And the craziest part is he had no support system if this failed.

All he knew was corruption.

Even if he was in community, it was with other tax collectors and other prostitutes, the worst of the worst in their society, he had no upper hand.

And then in a moment, he was met by God's grace and he followed him.

And then verse 29 says, Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him and his house.

And there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with him.

His immediate response was to bring others into what God had just done in his life.

He left his booth of calculation.

He had his idea of what everything would look like, potentially, even like, hey, if I raise these people's rates, if I continue to store up, maybe he had an exit plan.

We have no idea, but right now he walked away from everything and he invites people in to now celebrate with him.

In a place where he once collected from people, now he's welcoming people into his home.

The booth isolates.

And you and I, we have a booth.

You have some version where you feel complete control that you put your security in and your identity.

And that isolates.

But a table, even a quick shift, what we see is a table, it invites other people in, it gathers.

A booth reinforces who you were, a table reinforces who you are becoming.

We have life team leaders, we have a lot of new life team leaders, which is amazing.

And what they're finding is some of them are inviting people into their home for the first time.

And if you know anything about God's people, is that we're broken.

None of us are perfect.

That's why Jesus had to go to the cross.

Spoiler alert, we're gonna get there.

But we have people who are broken, inviting people in their homes who are jacked up as me, jacked up as you.

And what they're seeing is that God can do a lot with just gathering people around a table.

Community, being authentic, having alliance, having accountability.

These are the things that happen when you step out of your booth, out of your own self-reliance, and you move towards a community, and you move that in a healthy way where you're actually driven by the grace of God into inviting people and welcoming people to this table.

He throws a large banquet in his house and he fills it with friends.

And that's tax collectors, and it says others, but it's sinners.

It's other people that what they would have looked in would have labeled unclean.

And what's really important to understand in the Second Temple period is that the people that you sat with, that you shared space with, was very important to what you were actually identifying with.

If you're sharing space, if you're sharing time, you're sharing alliance.

You're approving.

So can you imagine at that time in that culture, in the rules that they identified, in the systems that they created, seeing and looking in at a party being thrown with what the world has labeled unclean, and Jesus is in there reclining with them.

The one all these people are watching, the one who's making all of these claims, is sitting there, reclining.

And the Pharisees see this and they grumble.

Not directly to Jesus, but to his disciples.

This is the second time they have not spoken directly to Jesus in the week before you guys saw in the story of the paralytic man coming down.

They were thinking in their head, and Jesus identified what they were thinking and spoke to the heart.

And right here, they're not identifying Jesus, they're not pointing out anything to him, they're speaking to his disciples.

Verse 30 says, But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to the disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

And this isn't curiosity.

They are accusing Jesus of something.

Because in their framework, holiness would separate from unclean.

But instead, you have someone who's deciding to invite these unclean, socially outcasts into a table and recline with them and dine with them.

If you were serious about God, you would distance yourself from those people.

That was their view.

There's no way if this was a righteous man of God, he would sit and recline at a table with sinners.

If you're claiming to be righteous, why in the world are you identifying with these people?

That's what it meant to sit at a table with someone.

And that would spread throughout town.

This is an important detail that you have to understand to understand the mission of Jesus.

Levi was in his booth, and he was willing to step out of that booth and invite people in to the table with Jesus.

And the Pharisees, they're not at the party.

They're not even in the house.

They're on the outside of the house looking in and condemning.

They're not at the party because they have rejected relationship with Jesus.

And we all have our worldly booths.

We all have the things that we keep close to us, that we look for security, that we look for control, that we find our identity rooting so deep into us.

And for the Pharisees, it wasn't as obvious as Roman-backed income.

Oppressing your own people, exploiting your own people.

The Pharisees' booth was self-righteousness and moral superiority.

They thought they were better than everyone else because they kept the rules that they made and they walked around living as if they were better and they were separate.

They knew unclean and clean.

Do not associate, you can associate.

Outsiders, insiders.

That's how they navigated life, and Jesus comes into the world and shows us what the kingdom actually is.

It invites those people.

It invites the very outsiders that society would say, get rid of them, get away from us.

He invites them in and he sits with them.

And this is the moment where the tone shifts in the story because Jesus didn't defend his reputation.

What he's doing is actually exposing their hearts.

In verse 31, Jesus replies to them, it's not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

And let me make this clear, he's not dividing the room by immoral and moral.

He's dividing the room into people who are aware and people who are unaware.

Everyone at that table knew that they were spiritually sick.

They felt it.

They knew it inside, but they felt it based on what the world has said about them.

And the most dangerous thing that we can be a part of or miss this is that it was the open rebellion of self-righteousness.

That was the dangerous thing.

The thing that they were unaware of.

And can I speak to some in the room?

Maybe you're like me and you've been hurt by the church.

Maybe you have a past experience of being in a community, maybe with some false doctrine, maybe with a bad culture, maybe with just some unhealthy leader or pastor and he hurts you.

And I'm not trying to give them any credit or justify what they did.

But can I tell you?

Maybe they weren't full out to be a villain, but they were unaware that they were enormously sick.

Maybe it crept in in their life.

Maybe it started off well.

Maybe it started off as a seed.

Maybe it was honor.

Something that they were dealing with, something that someone was doing for them, and it was disguised as idolatry.

And slowly they let that into their heart.

Slowly they let power into their heart.

Slowly they let influence into their heart.

And they started to deceive themselves.

I'm not sick.

They are.

Some people are even.

But I'd contend that a lot of it is just because we are unaware that we are spiritually sick.

And if that's you today, that is the opposite of Rabbi Jesus who walks in this scene and invites the outsider, invites those who were condemned, those who are looked down upon.

He invites them into a table to recline, to dine with them.

He's not defending the system.

It's not what he's doing.

He's not saying those who are healthy are righteous.

They don't need a doctor.

He's pointing out an illusion in them.

They think they're healthy.

The most dangerous booth is the one that you and I are unaware of.

And we're walking around.

Some of us are carrying our seat, we're carrying our booth everywhere we go.

Some of us are unwilling to leave the booth.

The easy stuff is like the obvious sin in our life.

And we all have that in our life.

Let's be honest.

We all have that.

My prayer has been that in these moments the Holy Spirit would reveal to you plainly what it is.

What is that booth in your life?

I've been asking that same prayer in my life.

What are the things that I've distorted?

What are the things that I've perverted?

What are the things that I am grabbing onto that I'm not following Jesus in?

That I'm unwilling to leave?

That I'm on the outside looking at them and condemning people.

I don't want to be outside of the party.

That's where the healing happens.

That's where the physician is.

So that's why we have to inwardly look and reflect and go through our life and really ask God to search us, to point the things out in us that we're unaware of.

Sin is sneaky.

The Pharisees were just as settled as the criminals in their booth.

Just as settled as those Roman tax collectors.

And the difference wasn't that Matthew wasn't a sinner and the Pharisees were not.

The difference is that Matthew and the people in that party, they knew they were sick.

All have fallen short of God's glorious standard.

We're all sinners.

And I was reflecting, I was actually Holodus is a mobile venue, and uh, so we set up in the morning, and I like to pop in in the morning even before I got here.

And um I was just talking to some of our people as we were setting up, and um, if you don't know the context of like the Sadducees, the ones who were like actually in control of the temple system, and then like the Pharisees who were like the Bible guys, and I'm not like I'm not trying to soften, like they are evil in this story.

But like it's really easy to depict the Pharisees as like these cartoon villains or like the bad guys in the movie, and like, hey, these guys do could they conspire to kill Jesus.

Spoiler alert, they're bad.

But so were we.

In their communities, they were well respected.

They were the Bible guys, they were the lay leaders, they were the ones trying to decipher God's word.

And in that whole period, I promise you, there must have been young guys coming up in the system who saw and wanted to be in influence and power for the love of God.

But slowly as knowledge crept in, slowly as power came in, it removed their actual want for devotion with God, and what they did is they lived in their self-righteousness and saw that they were better than everyone else.

And it distorted their view of God to the point when Jesus, God in flesh, shows up at the table, they didn't recognize it.

And that is the problem.

If you and I don't actually say or have an understanding deep in our core that we are spiritually sick, we might find ourselves in the same trap.

And that's what the enemy wants.

Some of these guys in their community, I'm sure, people love them.

People look up to them, suck like spiritual guidance.

They wanted spiritual guidance from these guys.

And some of them turned towards Jesus.

But many of them rejected him.

Majority of them rejected him.

It's a different found, it's like this, it's like the same foundation, but like a different problem.

It's sin.

We can't work our way into salvation.

We can't do enough good deeds.

We can't know enough.

You cannot rely on your own self-righteousness and rely on Christ at the same exact time.

It's not something you can do.

You can't cling to your self-justification and actually rely on the mercy of God simultaneously.

You can't do it.

We need his mercy.

We need to understand that we're broken.

We need to understand that we're sick.

We need to understand that salvation is a gift.

We all have a decision to make here today.

All of us in the room, all of us online, on whether we're gonna stay stuck in our booth or we're gonna follow Jesus to the table.

I want to be at that table.

And I feel just so necessary to just pause and give you time to just discern the spirit of what are the booths, booths or booths in your life that you're unwilling.

Matthew gave it all up.

And it wasn't him giving up everything that led to salvation, it was Jesus' grace and mercy on him that led him to change his opinion, that led him to actually change his view of the world and to follow after this God, this Messiah.

It was his grace that led him to that decision.

So in your life, is it obvious sin or is it self-righteousness?

We gotta wrestle with this.

Is it open rebellion?

Is it religious control?

Maybe even over our families, we think we're better off because we've put our faith in Jesus, and instead of actually inviting them into the table, we're the Pharisees.

We're condemning them.

Instead of sitting and dining and accepting and giving them grace and loving them and inviting them into this relationship with Jesus, we've been the biggest obstacle in their life.

The Pharisees were the obstacle, the temple system was the obstacle.

And Jesus came in and he flipped it all on his head.

What we're gonna see in the book of Luke is that over and over and over again, Jesus invites the outsider in.

He invites the sinner, he invites the prostitute, and he continues to go down the line of the very people that people would reject, that people would have set up to be on the outskirts of society.

He invites them in and he dines with them.

And in verse 32, he says, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

He's not affirming their righteousness, he's exposing the illusion, he's exposing their illusion.

They think because they follow some rules that they're different.

And everyone else has missed the mark.

But I serve a God of love.

I serve a God who's created all people.

And his heart, his very nature, is to be in relationship with us.

Sin has separated us from that relationship.

Our God is just, our God is perfect, and what you have is humanity setting up systems and walls so that the good people can stay on the inside, the sinners who don't think they're healthy, who think they're healthy.

And those who are sick, who are humble, who are desperate, who are open to the invitation of Jesus, are the ones in which this kingdom opens up for.

His mercy is enough.

There is nothing that you and I could ever do to save ourselves.

Leaving the booth won't save you.

It'll save you from earthly wrath, I promise.

But faith is not moral improvement.

Faith is a transfer of trust.

The moment you put faith in him, everything transfers, everything changes.

That's how you're actually willing to step away, even though you don't know how it's gonna go.

You don't know what people are gonna think, you don't know what people are gonna say about you, but it's a transfer of trust.

I'm no longer believing in the thing, I'm no longer standing in the booth, I don't care about this identity, I don't care about the security this gives.

I want the savior.

The one who knows I'm sick.

He takes the sickness upon himself and he heals us.

This table is a foreshadowing of the cross.

These sick people, these outcasts, us, he's gonna take all of it.

He's gonna take all of it, and he is going to be condemned and killed because of the relationships that he built at tables.

Hear me.

This is how this message started: a blank note with one line.

Jesus calling me to the table cost him everything.

I don't know what that means for you.

It's wrecked me.

Jesus calling me to the table.

Jesus calling you to the table, the outsider, the sinner, the one who is unclean, the one who's in their perceived mind not righteous.

That is what led him to the death.

That's the one who at one point in time he was hanging on a tree on the outskirts of the city, outcast, condemned, unclean.

All because he invited me into a table, into relationship with him.

I killed Jesus.

We killed Jesus.

We're all sick, and that's where the kingdom explodes.

That's where the kingdom intersects our world, and he invites you in, and the physician takes your sickness.

The physician takes your debt and he claims you as right standing.

He wipes your debt completely clean.

Your sin is as separated as far as the east from the west.

And when he sees you, he sees perfect holiness.

Justified by Jesus, the one who bore all sin and took all sin, the one who was cast out, the one who was hung and put to death.

He invites us into the table.

And I'm here just to plead with you that you cannot sit at your booth and recline at his table.

You can't.

His mercy, his grace is for everyone, but we need to accept it.

We're not going to work ourselves into this salvation, it's not going to happen.

Every time Jesus calls you, he's confronting you with what you actually trust.

If Jesus would walk up to you right now, think about Matthew.

He had this picture of Jesus.

He probably had an idea of what Jesus was going to say to him.

He probably thought he was never worthy for that rabbi, the Messiah, to ask him into his movement, into his kingdom.

And for some of us, as Jesus is walking up to you today, and he says, follow me.

What's the area in your life that's like unsettled right now?

That we're unwilling to give?

The booth that we're sitting in, we're secure in, and we have no idea what life would look like if we left it.

It's the grace, the love, the mercy of God that leads us to repentance.

And I'm thankful for a God who doesn't make me work toward him.

I'm thankful for a God who fixed a problem from the very beginning.

I'll preach this till I'm dead.

From the beginning of time, from the foundations of the earth, the lamb was slain.

Jesus fixed a problem from the very beginning.

The goal was to get into relationship with you.

And we've allowed systems, we've allowed pastors, celebrity pastors, we've allowed these things to get in the way and really hurt people, and that's fine because we're sick and we're unhealthy, but we need to look towards the one who actually heals, who actually invites us to the The table of grace is served right at his table.

Amen.

Grace is served at his table.

It cost Jesus everything to get me to the table.

I want to live with that.

I want to live with that.

He was cast out so that we can be brought in.

Maybe you're here today and you've never had a moment in time to put your faith in Jesus.

And my prayer has been that this whole time the Spirit be gripping you, showing you the sickness, showing you the false thing that you're putting security in and control in.

So with no one looking around the room, I just want to know who I'm talking to.

Would you just raise your hand if today is the day that you want to put your faith in Jesus?

Praise God.

Pray.

Praise God.

The table is getting bigger.

Praise Jesus.

Praise Jesus.

He invites you in.

Mercy, grace is served at this table.

And he takes upon your sin and he wants to heal you.

He's going to completely heal you from your sin.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

By raising your hand, you're saying that I choose to put my faith in him, in Jesus.

And for those of you who raise the hand, Jesus sees and accepts your faith.

Nothing can separate you from the Father.

Once you're adopted into this family, you're a son and you are a daughter.

Nothing can separate you from him.

Nothing.

If you raise your hand today, I want you to pray a prayer out loud with me.

Just acknowledging what you did today.

And for all the believers in the room, would you pray with me as well and those watching online?

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you were God.

That you came to earth and you died for my sins.

I believe that you rose again.

Thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray over you.

Father, we are overwhelmed with gratitude of the good news that brings great joy to all people.

And you invite us into your table.

God, we just acknowledge that we are spiritually sick.

And it's by your life, the lamb that was slain, that makes us clean.

Thank you, Jesus.

Continue to reveal yourself to us as we leave this place.

Continue to reveal to us what are the areas in which we are trying to seek control, security?

What are the things that we're unwilling to leave?

And Father, I pray that as you continue to pursue us, because you're a good God, you're a good Father, that you would make it apparent to us.

You continue to press upon our heart.

Continue to press upon our heart, Lord.

What are the things that we need to leave behind and follow you?

What are the systems that we're looking to?

Where are the places that my own self-righteousness and belief is blocking people, is distracting, just taking away opportunities from people around us, looking in at my life.

When clearly you invite them in and you love them.

Reveal to us those things.

Point out the areas in us that offend you.

We want to know them.

We want to continue to be made more and more like you in your image for the lost, for those hurting.

Thank you, Jesus, for what you're doing.

All God's people said, Amen.

Amen.

Can you give it up for the Lord?

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